Films and TV (Untagged spoilers)

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jppK_dp7YXY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVj6vs-738o

[Alienmorph]

Guddamn... that's pretty much kaiju-size. Quetzalcoatlus is already the biggest flying boy we know of, we didn't need to roid them up

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWzlQ2N6qqg

That confirms several of the big rumors about this movie.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In8fuzj3gck

Ah, so it's aliens.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7v1hIkYH24

And here's Amazon's much talked about LotR show.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM3Yx-5Ymiw

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

Guddamn... that's pretty much kaiju-size. Quetzalcoatlus is already the biggest flying boy we know of, we didn't need to roid them up

Deepest lore: JWD is a stealth reboot of The Giant Claw.



They grow 'em extra large at BioSyn.

[Alienmorph]

And here's Amazon's much talked about LotR show.

... which looks like every generic fantasy movie or show trailer ever, except for the obvious insane budget behind it.

Deepest lore: JWD is a stealth reboot of The Giant Claw.

They grow 'em extra large at BioSyn.

Well, I guess we needed something to match the leviathan-sized Mosasaurus

[Dragaros]

So now we have a "Shin Universe"?
Also, I wouldn't call Shin Godzilla a hero. Shin Goji is essentially an almost completely mindless force that exists purely to keep on existing, a living super-cancer that mutates to surpass and overcome whatever obstacles it comes across that are a threat to it.

[Dragaros]

"Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli, After Earth, Rogue One, Star Wars Rebels) posted this on Twitter last night."

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLFocw3FXKw

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zo3RI-Gl4M

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OHT6-DrK0s

[Dragaros]

https://www.mopop.org/about-mopop/the-m ... s-of-2021/

[Dragaros]

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/jim-hens ... man-reedus

"Norman Reedus is trading flesh-eating zombies for cute and cuddly puppets in a new (and rather unexpected) collaboration with the famed Jim Henson Company. Variety confirms the longtime Walking Dead actor has teamed up with celebrated The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth artists Brian and Wendy Froud for a family-friendly series featuring "an entirely new universe of creatures." The Frouds will craft the aesthetic and Reedus will supply the bad boy attitude he's cultivated for over a decade with the character of Daryl Dixon.

“Norman Reedus, the Frouds, and the Jim Henson Company coming together to create a show is the mashup of my dreams,” Halle Stanford, President of TV at The Jim Henson Company said in a statement published by Variety. “Norman is an artist, and when I suggested to him, what if we create a series with the Frouds together that explores his love of magical creatures, he was so excited.” She went on to describe the show as an "urban fantasy," whose goal is "to make hope cool."

Stanford continued: "It will be a magical world. But I feel like Norman is going to help us bring the ‘punk’ back in ‘hope punk.’ I also think that people kind of like that punk in Henson’s legacy. The Muppets were the underdogs, our [Labyrinth] Goblin King with David Bowie was so cool... When you say ‘Jim Henson,’ it invokes something in people. So I’m hoping those that felt inspired by him, like Norman Reedus, will look to us as a new home to create these types of stories that are transformative and entertaining, and having something to say, but also wanting to kind of push the medium of television.”

The mystery project is one several new enterprises hailing from the production banner co-founded by Jim Henson, the groundbreaking puppeteer who gave us the colorful characters of The Muppets and Sesame Street. Just last month, for example, the company rang in a television reboot of '80s classic Fraggle Rock — subtitled Back to the Rock — on Apple TV+. In addition, the company has a hand in Apple's animated Harriet the Spy series and Disney's Earth to Ned faux talk show.

"They are masters in the fantasy world-building space," Reedus said of his creative partners. "I mean, a show about goblins, trolls, and otherworldly creatures? There’s nobody in the universe better suited for that than the Henson Company."

As for the future of the The Dark Crystal IP, a prequel series, Age of Resistance, ran on Netflix for a single season to rave reviews and overwhelming fan support before it was unceremoniously canceled. With that said, the talented folks at The Jim Henson Company are "ready to jump" at a chance to revisit the legendary conflict between the Gelflings and the Skeksis. "The minute anyone would like to jump back into Thra [The Dark Crystal planet setting], it is a world that we will continue to build on and think about,” Stanford said.

While AMC gears up for the final episodes of The Walking Dead, Reedus has kept himself busy, writing a novel (out in April) and lobbying for the role of Ghost Rider in the MCU. Once Season 11 concludes, he'll jump right back into the undead universe in a spinoff centered around Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride)."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235093333/

"A live-action Wonder Twins movie is in the works for HBO Max. Adam Sztykiel (Black Adam, Scoob!) is set to write and direct the film. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill will produce the film."

https://deadline.com/2022/02/blade-runn ... 234931521/

"Blade Runner 2049 live-action sequel TV series, Blade Runner 2099, is in the works at Scott Free Productions in association with Alcon Entertainment and Amazon Studios. Ridley Scott, who directed the original 1982 Blade Runner movie, is executive producing the series. Silka Luisa is writing and executive producing the series. Andrew Kosove and his Alcon co-founder Broderick Johnson are exec producing the series along with Michael Green, who wrote Blade Runner 2049, Ben Roberts and Cynthia Yorkin as well as Scott Free Productions’ David W. Zucker and Clayton Krueger."

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/ ... -tv-series

"Jak & Daxter Adaptation In the Works from Uncharted Film Director."

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev82iHoLk8s

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dDv2zhkYy0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95r--JxkXtY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzCCMc78RY8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl4P-5-K4HA

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suf4D0f1NuE

[Dragaros]

"Influential comedy director Ivan Reitman has passed away at the age of 75, his family confirms. “Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” stated children Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman, and Caroline Reitman in a joint statement. “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.” Reitman, who began producing films in the 70s, including National Lampoon’s Animal House, became a hit writer and director in the 80s. 1981’s Stripes starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis was a hit grossing $85 million off a $10 million budget. Reitman followed that up with Ghostbusters, which became a pop-culture staple and raked in nearly $300 million at the box office. Reitman would go on to direct the sequel, Ghostbusters II, and work closely with Arnold Schwarzenegger on Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and Junior. The success of Reitman would continue into the 21st century as after Evolution starring David Duchovny, Reitman would direct My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and wrote and directed No Strings Attached, which brought in nearly $150 million on a $25 million budget. His final motion picture was 2014’s Draft Day starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner, which was a sports drama."

RIP

[magnuskn]

Oooof. Well, here goes another one.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kTbDtNysBk&ab

Going to be honest, not feeling it.

[Alienmorph]

Finished to watch the Expanse show. After it was confirmed it would end with season6, 3-4 books before the novel series I thought I might as well watch it, as it wouldn't spoil the whole story.

Overall really really good show. The last couple seasons were not as good as the previous ones, but for the most part I've had a damn good time and I'd definately recommend it if you're into sci-fi.

► Show Spoiler

Disappointed that everything about the Protomolecule and its creators just... fizzles away, yet they wasted about half-an episode in a the final, already short, season with that b-plot just to remind you there's still more weird alien stuff going on. I've felt kinda blueballed by that, big time.

Also, Marco Inaros was a good choice for a big villain, but good God the way his actor tried to do the "Belter speech" annoyed me. He sounded like he was constantly running out of breath lol

[Dragaros]

Going to be honest, not feeling it.

This is a weird direction for them to go in.

Surprising to see Roger Rabbit again in this day and age.

[Dragaros]

Finished to watch the Expanse show. After it was confirmed it would end with season6, 3-4 books before the novel series I thought I might as well watch it, as it wouldn't spoil the whole story.

Overall really really good show. The last couple seasons were not as good as the previous ones, but for the most part I've had a damn good time and I'd definately recommend it if you're into sci-fi.

► Show Spoiler

Disappointed that everything about the Protomolecule and its creators just... fizzles away, yet they wasted about half-an episode in a the final, already short, season with that b-plot just to remind you there's still more weird alien stuff going on. I've felt kinda blueballed by that, big time.

Also, Marco Inaros was a good choice for a big villain, but good God the way his actor tried to do the "Belter speech" annoyed me. He sounded like he was constantly running out of breath lol

I'm sad the show ended, but that just means I have even more incentive to jump into the books. Nice to have that feeling again. It's increasingly rare these days.

[Dragaros]

Judging by the T-rex, they either briefly go back in time, or they make a quick visit to the Savage Land.

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[TTTX]

hard to judge concept art.

[Alienmorph]

They look... skinny as f, but the arstyle is quite neat overall. Tho yeah, as TTX said, concept art doesn't tell us much of the final product.

[Ragabul]

Don't think it's really necessary but just in case, the following has massive DS9 spoilers.

► Show Spoiler

Within about six episodes of finishing Deep Space 9. Worf never did develop a clear reason for being in the show, but he also ceased to be an utter doofus so the problems with him mostly went away.

Quark really deteriorated throughout the show. He shows the least growth of any of the Ferengi characters and because they grow a lot and he mostly doesn't, he ends up looking increasingly pathetic by comparison towards the end. He becomes little more than a comic relief character, and while he was always partially that, he wasn't *just* that in the beginning.

Odo has the overall best, consistent arc. Sisko's is more subtle but good and interesting because it's highly religious in nature (and religion done well at that) and not really something I would expect going into Star Trek.

They pulled off the transition from Jadzia to Ezri better than I thought they would.

Gul Dukat gets weaker and weaker as the show goes on. At first, he's about making you grapple with the fact that this more or less Nazi is *likeable,* but he just becomes more clownishly evil as the show goes on. It's like some writer was fishing for every cliche thing for a super evil guy to do towards the end. "Well, he was the commandant of Auschwitz, but we need some other super evil thing for him to do to cement his evilness. How about running a suicide death cult? How about literal demon worship?" It's like they didn't trust the audience to remember who Dukat was if they didn't start whacking you over the head with his badness towards the end.

They were borderline schizophrenic with their depiction of Kai Winn. They could not decide if she was a villain, a person who means well with bad policies, or simply tragic. At the height of the silliness here, they just gloss over and forget that she attempted to have a political rival assassinated. *Edit* They do use her as an excellent illustration of how the concept of *real* repentance works though. At the end, she begins to genuinely repent and is presented with the reality that in order to *truly* repent she can't just make pious sounds. She has to give up her power and authority which is what tempted her into sin in the first place. She can't do it. She doubles down on the sin because real repentance means giving up something she wants.

Mostly approve of the plot. There are a few problems (like blowing up the ketracel-white facility which should have won them the war and this immediately getting memory holed *because* it was a war winning strategy and they want the show to keep going). Overall, it does a good job of "giant space war without just becoming Star Wars."

The strongest non-character thing it does really well, I'd say, is exploring religious themes. There's a *lot* of this. There are three deeply religious characters (Kira, Worf, and believe it or not Quark). Sisko's arc is also highly religious in nature. This is not even remotely what I expected but it does a great job of looking at this with nuance. They look at every aspect of this. How does institutional decay effect religion? How does conversion work? What do you do when your religion conflicts with the morals of people around you? What is faith exactly? How does religion overlap with identity? How can religion go bad? What can it do that's good? They even do a good job with presenting how demons really work in Judeo-Christian theology (by pretending to be angels/gods and tricking people into worshipping them). It's just done really well.

As I already said, it has notably fewer bad episodes than TNG. I can't say I like it *better* than TNG but I like it as much as TNG and there are certain specific things it does better.

Overall, 9.0 or so score I'd say. It's certainly in the top caliber of sci-fi shows I've seen.

Gonna go back to reading now for a bit because I read so little while watching these. I am half considering giving either Babylon 5 or Voyager a try in the nearish future though. I hear Babylon 5 is really good and Voyager at least has moments.

[Alienmorph]

Babylon5, for sure. The final season in a bit meh, but it's because the show was cancelled ahead of time, so there's a lot of setup for stuff that wasn't given the chance to pay off. Everything else tho is really really excellent in terms of story and characters.

[TTTX]

Babylon5, for sure. The final season in a bit meh, but it's because the show was cancelled ahead of time, so there's a lot of setup for stuff that wasn't given the chance to pay off. Everything else tho is really really excellent in terms of story and characters.

I agree as someone who own all 5 seasons on dvd.

[magnuskn]

Babylon 5 is my favorite TV show of all time. DS9 ist my second favorite. Definitely try B5.

As for the final season of it, what Alienmorph said, but personally I think while it starts off weak (we can speak about why when you get to it), it gets back to the level of seasons two to four in the second half. Season one needs a while to get going, but after the first half the metaplot starts to kick in and it's all uphill from there, barring a few individual stinker episodes.

[Dragaros]

► Show Spoiler

Gul Dukat gets weaker and weaker as the show goes on. At first, he's about making you grapple with the fact that this more or less Nazi is *likeable,* but he just becomes more clownishly evil as the show goes on. It's like some writer was fishing for every cliche thing for a super evil guy to do towards the end. "Well, he was the commandant of Auschwitz, but we need some other super evil thing for him to do to cement his evilness. How about running a suicide death cult? How about literal demon worship?" It's like they didn't trust the audience to remember who Dukat was if they didn't start whacking you over the head with his badness towards the end.

► Show Spoiler

Funny thing is, the writers/showrunners were split on just how evil or how sympathetic they wanted Dukat to be portrayed, with some even wanting him to get a redemption arc, while others wanted him to be Space Hitler, and they bounced back and forth on that for a long while before ultimately Space Hitler was what they settled on (and later they decided on going even further into full Space Anti-Christ territory) both because it'd make him more of a antagonistic counterpart for Sisko given their connections to Bajor/Prophets/Pah-Wraiths, and as a character he was becoming too likable with audiences; they did too good a job of fleshing him out combined with Marc Alaimo's excellent and charismatic performance as audience feedback was showing a little too much sympathy for him in their eyes, so they made sure to tell folks that while yes, there are elements to him you could pity or understand, he was an evil SOB at his core, who's done horrific things no matter how he tried to explain them away or justify them, and after the death of his daughter who essentially was his last and only proverbial shoulder angel, he fully embraces being the monster he always was but always denied previously. (as before that Dukat was the ultimate embodiment of that idea of "everyone is the hero of their own story" for Dukat could delude himself into thinking everything he did was justified or right no matter how ruthless or self-serving or dishonorable, so great was his ego, pride, narcissism, and lust for power) And then he tries to turn the entire Alpha Quadrant into Space Hell for his new demonic masters as the villainous mustache-twirling cherry on top to cap off his journey; whether one thinks that was a good or poor direction for the character is up to the viewer, of course. On the one hand, Dukat loses all his complexity and becomes simple in motivation, but on the other you get Marc Alaimo deliciously chewing the scenery even more as he becomes full Chaotic Evil.

Gonna go back to reading now for a bit because I read so little while watching these. I am half considering giving either Babylon 5 or Voyager a try in the nearish future though. I hear Babylon 5 is really good and Voyager at least has moments.

Echoing what the others said, definitely go for Babylon 5 if you want another sci-fi show to sit down with. It's got its stellar reputation for a reason.

[Dragaros]

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/ ... ice-avatar

"Spider-Man: No Way Home Passes Avatar to Become Third Highest-Grossing Domestic Film [...] Spider-Man: No Way Home has been a massive success, and it has now officially taken down the sci-fi epic Avatar as the third-highest-grossing film in United States history. The move came over the weekend, with No Way Home reaching the milestone of $760.9 million at the North American box office, good enough to just edge itself past James Cameron’s film, which stood at $760.5 million. While it seems like Spider-Man‘s momentum may not be enough to carry it all the way over Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million) or Avengers: Endgame ($858 million) for the first or second mark, respectively, being the third highest-grossing film in domestic history is still a huge mark for the film. “Though Spider-Man: No Way Home benefits from a much higher average ticket price than Avatar, this does not detract from the enormity of this achievement coming during a pandemic-impacted marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore (via Variety). “It would have been unimaginable just a few months ago to think that the latest Spider-Man film would even have a shot at leapfrogging over Avatar, which has been a mainstay on box office Mt. Olympus for over a decade.”"

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/ ... urth-movie

"J.J. Abrams to Produce Fourth Star Trek Film, Full Cast Returning."

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/ ... window-set

"A Quiet Place Part III Announced, Release Date Window Set For A tentative 2025 Release."

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFE8ASwxmpA

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7glvM8Xh0w

[Dragaros]

Looks like the Maximals and Predacons will be sticking around for more movies to do a proper Beast Wars scenario.

[Dragaros]

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_03bN__L9b0&ab

well that explains a lot and there is a lot of hubris in the production, so expect a giant dumpster fire.

[Alienmorph]

So we're doing a LotR prequel series, set in a timeframe where the main source of lore and story would be the Silmarillion... and they don't have the rights for it? So basically they couldn't be faithful to the source material even if they wanted to (which seems pretty clear they don't)?

Fuuuck, this is just like when we were pretending Star Trek Discovery was part of the o.g. Star Trek timeline, despite everything having to be slightly different because of copyright reasons.

Also gotta love deflections like "the only person who can tell me I'm wrong is Tolkien", as if the man didn't leave us with an whole lifetime of writing and we didn't know his intent behind his Middle Earth's work, or the fact he despised big corporations and political ideologs and revisionists. Ffs.

[Ragabul]

► Show Spoiler

and as a character he was becoming too likable with audiences; they did too good a job of fleshing him out combined with Marc Alaimo's excellent and charismatic performance as audience feedback was showing a little too much sympathy for him in their eyes, so they made sure to tell folks that while yes, there are elements to him you could pity or understand, he was an evil SOB at his core, who's done horrific things no matter how he tried to explain them away or justify them,

► Show Spoiler

I thought this was more than adequately done in the episode where he and Sisko crash land on a planet (I forget the name) and he sabotages the distress beacon because he wants to force Sisko to stay with him so he can try to gain Sisko's explicit endorsement of his atrocities during the occupation of Bajor. It really pulls the veneer back and makes you realize just how twisted he is if that was somehow in doubt before. And this takes place well before any of the mustache twirling demon possession, death cult stuff.

Granted after that point, it becomes unclear what to do with him because he's been neutered as a villain since he is no longer in command of Cardassia and his "likability" has been canceled as well. The only options of what to do with him at that point are 1) Get rid of him, 2) have him hang around pathetically begging people to like him, or 3) come up with some way to resuscitate him into a threat. Those all have problems but I think 1) would have been the best writing wise. The best thing altogether would have been to wait until very close to the series end to peel back the veneer to explicitly expose his badness as that episode with Sisko did.

@ wannabe LotR junk

Tolkein and C. S. Lewis are borderline sacred to me. I don't even like thinking about that stuff. Better for me to pretend it doesn't exist. These do not need reimagining, updating, fleshing out, or any of it. I would literally rather they be forgotten and just become the domain of academics and historians than get despoiled in this manner. At least those people would mostly sift through the ashes with depth.

[Alienmorph]

People are pretty widely rejecting the whole affair already. Well, except the usual "muh diversity" vocal minority that seems to consider a step forward in human history every time a big corporation puts a non-white person on a poster, of course.

Officially the show is planned to be a 5-6 seasons affair, possibly also leading to new LotR movies, according to some rumor. But right now, only the first two seasons are in active development. Watch it be canned in record time once it comes out, with all the people working on it then being sad because "we don't know what we're missing on", like with Netflix's Cowboy Bebop.

Especially since this one costs a whole lot more.